Baby proofing tips please!!

[CanadaCalls]

Ok, so DS has just started crawling ( not with his knees, just soldier crawling through trench type of crawling) and i'm in a tizz!!

I've been looking forward to this moment for so long, nothing cuter than a baby that has just realised he can move without help! BUT, I'm not prepared!

I know the usual, get on their level, crawl around the house (if my old, rickety knees will allow it) and look for dangers that they would see (and of course, make it their mission to touch) plug socket things in plugs, door locks, sponges on the doors to stop slamming etc.....

Just wondered if anybody has had any bad experiences where they have been caught unaware and DC has surprised them with a hidden danger that you missed?

Ta very mooch :o

Keep an eye on how tall Dc is getting. Thought we were pretty baby proof until a fortnight ago when Ds pulled a cup of tea onto his arm from the kitchen unit. I thought it was out of reach/too far back, but had not banked on tiptoe and determination. Cue panic, trip to a and e and two weeks of bandaged arm.

Oh, and be paranoid about the safety gate upstairs. Ds took a tumble at 11 months cos Dh was in the shower, i w as straightening my hair and neither of usnoticed him making for the unlocked gate.

I'll stop now, in case SS are watching!

Ps we've got a marble hearth and I've put a fireguard round it as I have visions of Ds or dd cracking their heads open during a fall.

Make sure you have one totally safe space you can pen them into in case the doorbell rings, you suddenly realise you haven't weed all day or there is an emergency.

Sudocrem!!!! Keep it out of reach, it is a bugger to get out of carpet, hair, teddy bears and toys. Particularly annoying on wallpaper. Generally when they do get hold of it they will get it on all of the things listed and more.

For above also substitute sudocrem any substance that feels nice between the hands and would smear well.

My toddler has just discovered the oven and has a nasty mark on his head when opening the door and the corner cutting his forehead.
Luckily it wasn't on at the time. But is there any special oven safely tool to keep it closed? I presume the regular cupboard locks won't work as they are plastic and would melt.

we have a stairgate on kitchen leftover from DD1. DD2 is with CM during the week so we only have 2 days to 'worry' about. DP makes a huge cushion ringed area for DD2 in weekends - I don't

My main concern are small bits from DD1's toys - they seem to be getting smaller & smaller as DD2 is getting more mobile. We are all vigilant about those.

Have one area that is totally, totally safe so that you can shower/wee/answer door and relax about the rest, because you will be there!

Hot drinks only go at the back of kitchen work surfaces and pens are contraband.

The best tip would be declutter. If you don't have 'stuff' everywhere, the things that are a risk become very obvious.

Clear the dining table completely, straight after the meal, every time, because yanking the table cloth off and taking everything with it is a specialty

We did all the normall stuff, but just wanted to add that we installed sash-jammers on the doors and any windows that you didn't have to be a genius to open.

They are little upvc swivel locks, that you fit really high up, and just twizel to lock.

They mean that your front door for example, is dead easy to lock from the inside, without using the key, and the lock is out of reach from little hands. But you don't have to go fumbling around for your well hidden key if the postman calls.

When they get to door opening age, and key twiddling age, it's good to know thy can't open the front door while you pop for a wee!

Great advice here but I would add -

ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS empty the bath immediately. Standing water is a toddler magnet and (I don't need to tell you) extremely dangerous.

I got in the habit of pulling the plug before taking DC's out of the bath early on. I'm still paranoid about it and they are now 8 and 5!

Check for switches within reach, esp of freezers. A friend's son found a switch he could turn on and off at will (there was even a light that came on and off - such fun!). Friend didn't notice for a few days and then discovered everything had defrosted. Not fun!

Oh and make sure blinds don't have dangly string cords, read too many horrible stories bout that and always cut grapes in half!

Someone wise once told me up respond to baby exploration as it happens, rather than pre empt it. I was all ready to spend ££ on baby proofing kits but my DD is totally uninterested in many (potentially) dangerous or unsuitable things. Never bothered with plugs ( I have a feeling if there were covers she'd be interested in pulling them off), the oven, heavy kitchen downward dropping cupboards etc. I have a decoy drawer in the kitchen and fill it with crap that she likes pulling out. She does like posting iphones down the loo though so that has been an expensive lesson for me.

But I did move a bit of furniture including easily climbing stuff away from windows, and horrid corners.

I didn't really do much baby proofing mostly because many of the baby proof gadgets are also arthritis proof so would have kept me out too
Did remove (& still do ) all pens for kid height.
We have a catch on the knife drawer but that's it really.
Make sure furniture is sturdy and not pull overable if not I'd fix it to the wall.
Don't leave sharp / hot / dangerous things at kid height and make sure guests & relatives are reminded of this.
Everybody criticised me for not having a stair gate but actually DS learnt to use the stairs properly very very rapidly and confidently. We have had 1 fall in 3.5 yrs and that's because he was messing around.

Wow! We have been so lucky. I had a stair gate-we have a very big first flight of stairs,old Victorian house,and a fireguard in TV room. And that was it. Mine never opened a cupboard or press door without me. DS1 didn't even work out how to climb onto a table via a chair until he saw a friend from school do it! He was so impressed!

Make a habit of closing the bathroom door.

I learnt this the hard way when i found DD had got hold of a my purse and emptied the contents down the loo.

My friend learnt this after DD decided to brush her dogs teeth and covered the long suffering but doting beast with toothpaste. He then bounded round the living room, on the sofa, rolled on the rug...Do you have any idea how far a new tube of toothpaste be spread? My friend does. Not good when your living room rug/fabric sofa/curtains are black. Oopsy.

Yes agree with above poster, accidents are just that and you can't pre-empt them all, my dd tripped over my foot at 16 months old and lost her front tooth, no baby proofing can stop all accidents. However, all the obvious stuff...anything they can pull onto themselves need to be moved/made secure, any cleaning products and medicines need to be locked away, I didn't have a coffee table when my two were babies as they always banged their heads on my mums... any drawers they can access need to be investigated by you for anything dangerous, hot water pipes below radiators are hazardous when hot. Any cords (straighteners/hairdryers, kettle, toaster etc) need to be out of reach. Good luck

Teach 'NO!' and 'STOP!' as soon as you can do in a voice That Must Be Obeyed. Can be applied in all sorts of situations that you previously hadn't thought of.

Oh and a toddler death stare is also useful.

Watch out for those bar extension cord things with the multiple sockets on them. Our sockets are safe because to open the bottom live hole you have to put a prong in the earth hole at the top. If a plug is put in upside down in one of the extension bars then the bottom holes will be opened and the live exposed, vv dangerous (couldn't happen on normal wall sockets cause the wall is in the way)

Lock external doors! Even if you think they don't know how or can't reach yet, once they summon the motivation I rekcon they can will themselves to grow! I was feeding newborn dd and commenting inside my head about how peaceful it was then realised it was too peaceful. On inspection the front door had been unlocked and opened and DS (1.5) was 10 doors down in someones drive petting a cat, cue me tearing down the street, no shoes, jammy bottoms, nursing bra unclipped!

I taught 'can I have that please, ds?' from a very early age. He is now 15mo and hands anything over without complaint. That's a useful one. I also have a good death stare and a lot of stuff can be dealt with by a firm 'no!'

We live in a townhouse and would need about 7 stairgates... So we just don't bother. He climbs the stairs only under supervision and if he wanders out there on his own he looks at the stairs, shakes his head and says 'nawtee' and wanders back in. I find stairgates and other baby proofing items actually lend themselves to fascination about what's forbidden.

I have discovered that my house is not childproof. Every time I think it is, the little sod clever thing learns to do something else. Remember to re-evaluate when he learns to pull up onto his feet, grows taller, learns to climb...

As I can't watch DS for all his waking hours, we have stair gates top and bottom. It is very important not to have small (toddler mouth size) things at floor level. Like coins. Or batteries. And our HV pointed out that dishwasher tablets look like sweets but are terribly caustic.

Oh and another thing to remember is that if you're lucky enough to have one of the ones that doesn't climb much/is fairly good at learning what they mustn't touch, you will need to be EXTRA vigilant if you have other children visiting, as you might not be set up for what they might do.

DS and DD were both fairly predictable and not big climbers, but one of DS's friends was like spiderman and could be guaranteed to climb up to the knives you didn't think he could reach or whatever! Apparently at home he would climb up to kitchen worktops and try to put the kettle on

Another warning about Other Children, and locking external doors very high up.
Ds, being short, couldn't reach the handle to open the front door even at 2.6. Even standing on a stool, which he thought of pretty rapidly.

However when tall dn, 3 months older, was staying one weekend, I overheard [clunk] "Stand there. Pull dat. Pull the shiny bit." followed by huge giggling that got fainter - and legged it out to find both boys at the other end of the path turning onto the pavement...

And of course ds looking angelic saying "I didn't open the door!" as I hauled them back inside.

Ds just needs a white cat to be an excellent supervillain - he's recently (age 3) been trying to get dn to help open a stairgate - it's a two-handed job for an adult so they need to cooperate. It's only luck they haven't managed it, actually, but now all it protects is MrNC's chance of a lie-in!

Gather everything you treasure at present and place it in a card board box. Give ds a rolling pin and bag of flour. Leave room for exactly 5 minutes.

Clean up ds, throw box and contents away wincing it the tinkly smashy sound. Replace items when ds is 23.

HTH

Oh yes that reminded me we had another small visitor recently who opened the stairgate and headed upstairs! He was old enough to be quite safe on the stairs, but it was lucky DD didn't notice and follow him up before we spotted it.

Saying that, the (adult) ILs were also terrible at keeping the gates shut when they came for Christmas, and they all have children (and have or used to have stairgates), so no idea why that was!